Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
14 entries
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 644 | IF there is variation of the category of person in personal pronouns so as to show degrees of respect or social distance, THEN there is variation of number for the same purpose. | inflection, semantics | implication | personal pronoun, person, number, respect, social distance |
| 819 | IF there are diphthongs, THEN there are or were long vowels. | phonology | implication | vowel, long, diphthong |
| 1259 | The less sonorous a vowel (or class of vowels), the more prone it will be to assimilate; and conversely, the more sonorous it is, the more resistant it will be to assimilation. | phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony, sonority |
| 1260 | High vowels tend to assimilate more readily and earlier than low vowels. | phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony |
| 1261 | IF there is assimilation of low vowels, THEN there is assimilation of high vowels. | phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony, height |
| 1262 | Unstressed vowels are more likely to assimilate than stressed vowels. | phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony, stress |
| 1263 | IF an otherwise harmonizing unstressed vowel becomes stressed due to intonational factors, THEN it can no longer harmonize. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | assimilation, vowel harmony, stress, intonation |
| 1593 | IF basic order is verb-final, THEN there will be a strong tendency to place grammatical morphemes (grams) after the verb, and eventually to suffix them. | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-final, verbal morpheme, affix-order, suffix |
| 1594 | IF basic order is verb-medial, THEN there is a strong tendency for preposed grammatical morphemes not to be affixed (i.e., to be free). | morphology, syntax | implication | order, verb-medial, morpheme, affix-order, grammaticalization |
| 1674 | IF a consonant is palatalized before [e], THEN necessarily it will be also palatalized before [i]. | phonology | implication | palatalization, consonant |
| 1975 | There is a tendency for the existential, copulative, and verb-category carrying dummy elements of a language (a) synchronically to interpenetrate in complex patterns of suppletion, semantic overlapping, and partial homonymy, and (b) diachronically to merge, split, and otherwise restructure among themselves. | inflection, syntax, semantics | unconditional | verb, existence, copula, auxiliary, suppletion, homonymy |
| 1976 | There are severe limitations on the kinds of synchronic patterns and diachronic restructurings which may occur in existential-copulative-auxiliary systems, and such patterns and changes are related to syntactic characteristics of a very general typological nature. In other words, a particular pattern of constructions of 'being' tends to reflect the general syntactic character of the language, and changes in the pattern tend to form part of general typological shifts. | inflection, syntax, semantics | implication | verb, existence, copula, auxiliary |
| 1993 | In an SOV language with the lexical items for existential and copulative function separate, the Ex tends to be used as an auxiliary combining with the conjunctive to form 'present state' tenses of perfect or present continuous value; as such it tends to change from an independent following auxiliary to a tense-forming suffix. | inflection, syntax | unconditional | order, SOV, verb, existence, copula, auxiliary, conjunctive, tense, aspect, present, perfect, continuous, suffix |
| 2033 | IF there are contour tones in place X on any of the hierarchies in (a)-(d), THEN there are contour tones also lower on each hierarchy:(a) syllable type: CVV >> CVR >> (CVO) >> CV(b) number of syllables: monosyllabic >> bisyllabic >> polysyllabic(c) prominence: stressed >> unstressed, root >> affix syllable(d) tone: R >> F >> H, L | phonology | implicational hierarchy | tone, contour tone |